Easter eggs

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The names of the developers can be found on the lockers. There are also unused names in the files (see the List of minor Black Mesa employees for the names). The developers are also mentioned in announcements.

Gordon Freeman's locker contains a couple of Easter eggs: a photo of a baby, and two books by Marc Laidlaw, The Orchid Eater and The 37th Mandala (a texture for The Third Force was created, but left unused). According to Harry Teasley, the baby in the photo is his daughter, Isabel Teasley, and was originally placed on a broken desk in a ruined office.[1] It was later moved to Gordon's locker by another designer, most likely by Brett Johnson, the creator of the map. It should be also noted that Brett's locker is next to Gordon's.

In the PlayStation 2 version, an Easter egg was added involving the two scientists occupying the toilet stalls in the locker room. The two now converse with one another utilizing existing scientist dialog lines in a humorous manner. While there are three normal exchanges which play at regular time intervals, a secret fourth scripted dialog sequence also exists which only plays once every five minutes.[2]

The very small text in this sign reads "If you can read this a bit then you are really freak in strange with good eyeyeS / I need text of internet here. no really go ahead and picture something cool in your mind eye make something up of what you would like for this to say".

The player can see the names of developers on each footlocker in the dormitory. This has been a tradition in the Half-Life series since the original game. David Mertz's locker is also next to Adrian Shephard's, the creator of the map, just like Brett Johnson's locker being next to Gordon Freeman's.

There is an unreachable room below Shephard's dormitory. If the player uses "noclip" and goes in the room, they find a dark room with the initials, "D.M.M 1999". D.M.M is the initials of David Michael Mertz, the creator of the map, while 1999 is the release date for Opposing Force.

The player can use the Displacer to visit the ruined Hazard Course. Here, there is a photo of Rob Heironimus (taken by his co-worker John Faulkenbury) from Easter 1998 with plastic Easter eggs in his eye sockets.[4]

The puzzle to kill the Pit Worm involves both a "gearbox" and a "valve" to be used, which are obvious references to the game's developers.

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An unused sound file "dsbossit.wav" can be found in the "misc" folder. The sound file sounds like complete gibberish, but when played backwards, it says "To win the game you must kill me, Randy Pitchford",[5] mirroring the final boss from Doom II that says "To win the game you must kill me, John Romero", backwards. John Romero and Randy Pitchford are makers of Doom and Half-Life: Opposing Force, respectively. In addition, dsbossit means "Doom sound, Boss sighted" and is the filename used for the equal sound in Doom II.

A security guard and a scientist are playing a fighting arcade video game named Prax Wars 2: Dante's Revenge. This is a reference to Prax Wars, a cancelled video game by Rebel Boat Rocker. The key members of the studio later founded Gearbox Software.

Barney Calhoun's locker contains a couple of Easter eggs: two photos, two fictional books The Truth About Aliens by RH (Rob Heironimus) and Government Conspiracies, and a Chumtoad in a cardboard box (see the article for the Chumtoad for more information).

Near a desk at Kleiner's Lab can be seen two crates marked as radioactive. One of them is yellow and bears the words "PLUTONIUM HANDLE WITH CARE". This is a reference to the plutonium case featured in the movie Back to the Future. The same desk model was used in Black Mesa East.

On a security workstation in Kleiner's Lab can be seen a CD player indicating the name "Blue Scholars", which is the name of an alternative hip-hop band. One of its two members, Sabzi, is the cousin of Dhabih Eng, one of the designers of the location.

On the same workstation can be seen a radio tuned to FM 89.50. KNHC, also known as C89.5 FM, is a music station run by students at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, Washington. It can be heard in a small radius around Puget Sound, but also streams live to the Internet.

A console in Kleiner's Lab displays the text "42FF". It was placed by Gary McTaggart, a former Valve programmer, and is a reference to a friend group called "42 Freedom Fighters" that he is a part of.[6]

Eli's Lab at Black Mesa East contains a couple of Easter eggs: a couple of fictional books The Extreme Aggrotato by Marc Laidlaw, The Big Book of Big Text by Dayyan Eng (Dhabih Eng's brother), and Lost Socks (this is in a fact real world book by Harry S. Robins). The Cremator's head, a cut enemy from the game, in a jar, and also on a computer screen nearby (see the article for the Cremator for more information).

Apparently referencing the Super Mario series, this map features a narrow corridor with three metal pipes and a Headcrab set to move back and forth between two of them; it is instantly killed when touched by the player.

There is a line[i] that was to be said by a security guard in a port of the Hazard Course from the original game. The line is: "Sorry, sir. You know I can't let you through here without your good friend Superfly Johnson. Wa hah. Just kidding, Gordon. You go on through. Hah haha!". This is a reference to Superfly Johnson character from the video game Daikatana, best known for his poor pathfinding skills. He is an ally, and has to follow the player through some levels. If the player reaches a loading point and the character is not with the player, the player character will say: "I can't leave without my buddy, Superfly!". It also a reference to a line[i] said by the security guard when Gordon tries to go through a checkpoint without his suit on. The line is: "Sorry, Mr. Freeman, I got explicit orders not to let you through without your hazard suit on."

In the White Forest base, an Easter egg referring to the TV series Lost can be found. In Uriah's lab, there is an inaccessible room containing a computer terminal with the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation shown on the screen and, on the wall, a Dharma-style octagon with the three pines from the White Forest logo in the middle. According to Steve Bond, many Valve employees are fans of Lost, and they noticed several strong Half-Life references in the first season of Lost. Gabe Newell and Lost creator J. J. Abrams exchanged e-mails, and Newell promised Abrams there would be a Lost reference in Episode Two, and this room was created.[8]

An unused wet floor sign texture, humorously referencing the film 300 and the infamous meme "This is Sparta!" can be found in the game files. While no model exists, the texture file is located in the folder props_facemovie. It is based on a picture originally posted on the Escapist forums.

At the start of Test Chamber 08, the turbines of the Enrichment Center malfunction and GLaDOS has to temporarily leave, giving Chell only the "fast" version of the test's explanation, which is an incomprehensible sped-up sentence. When slowed down, the sentence reveals itself to be "and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.", an excerpt from Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

The icon used for Hammer's obsolete entities consists of what presumably is the head of Jay Stelly pasted on the bust of Fonzie from the TV sitcom Happy Days, with his trademarks thumb up and leather jacket.

Typing the example coordinates "200 -4096 1154" into the "Go To Coordinates" dialog in Hammer results in a dialog appearing, which reads "Seriously? (I mean, that was just an example, you were supposed to type in your own numbers)".